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Golden Books Home Entertainment
Logo descriptions by Argus Sventon, James Fabiano, Matt Williams, Nicholas Aczel, Kris Starring, and Cameron McCaffrey
Logo captures and editions by Eric S., WileE2005 and AsdfTheRevival
Background: This was established by childrens' book publisher Golden Books as it's home video unit. Its earliest releases in the 1985-1986 timeframe were probably the most well-remembered, featuring adaptions of popular Golden Books using illustrations shot out of the books with very limited animation effects added. They also released many other children's entertainment videos, often under the "GoldenVision" name. In 1997, the newly formed Golden Books Family Entertainment began releasing videos through Sony Wonder. In 2001, the assets of Golden Books were sold to Classic Media, LLC (since acquired by Entertainment Rights plc., now Boomerang Media, L.L.C.) and Random House (which now continues Golden Books as a standalone imprint) in a bankruptcy court auction. Classic Media continued releasing the Golden Books Family Entertainment catalog through Sony Wonder until 2007, when it changed distributors to Genius Products.
Golden Book Video
1st Logo (Opening)
(1985-1996)
Nickname: "The Turning Golden Book"
Logo: The screen is divided into two parts horizontally: the top half is black and the bottom half is a lilac-sea green gradient. We see a book with its bottom side facing us, on the bottom half of the screen. As we zoom out it opens up and the pages turn, while a yellow pie-shaped sun flies up from the book, whose pages rise up and turn yellow. As this happens, the background becomes completely black .The pages and sun turn golden (or at least a cheesy recreation) as a golden rounded rectangle border zooms out and encloses the elements, with a space left where a ray of light wipes "GOLDEN" in a Serif Gothic-like font below it. The rounded rectangle "morphs" into a TV tube as "GOLDEN" zooms out to make way for "BOOK" which is wiped on similarly, and "VIDEO" which zooms out below that, with a shadow effect. The logo shines several times.
Closing Variants: In most cases, a silenced end animation played at the end of the video. At least one variant has been spotted where the logo fades in from a distance, slowly zooming up to the camera until it has nearly overtaken the entire screen. On several 1985 video releases, a different animation was sometimes used, which is described below.
FX/SFX: All the animation in this logo.
Music/Sounds: There were two fanfares used on this logo, both synthesized. They both were basically the same in format, but used two different sets of keys. "Version 1" was used up until mid-1986 and often featured the scary "space" end animation at the end of the video; "Version 2" was used from late-1986 to 1996.
Music/Sound Variant: An abridged version of the logo is used which plays a variation of the last few notes of the version 2 music, and the GoldenVision logo follows it.
Availability: Uncommon; still saved on copies with a print version of the logo which uses a different yet similar font for the words. Some early 1990s releases had the trademark Golden Books Spine which was used on all later releases. It can also be seen on some DiC video releases, including the 1989 video Little Golden Book Land: The Great Harbor Rescue. All videos with this logo are now unfortunately out of print, but can be found on eBay and at used video stores.
Scare Factor: Low; this logo has cool animation effects. But that does not compare to the closing logo...
2nd Logo (Closing)
(1985)
Nicknames: "(Outer) Space", "The Final Frontier... AAH!!!!", "Space from Hell/ofDoom", ''Space from 1985'', "A Golden Book in Space", "Golden Book Video Logo in Space", ''The Logo from Outer Space (spoof of The Cat from Outer Space)'', "The Neon Golden Book Video of Space"
Logo: We start out zooming in space, with an orange planet at the right of the screen and a blue planet at the left. Suddenly a comet appears and flies towards the center of the screen. When it reaches the center it "blows up"--i.e., there is a flash and the screen turns yellowish tint and a few yellow streaks emerge from the center and fly toward the screen, slightly moving left as they do so. A large Golden Book Video logo glowing blue zooms out as the yellowish tint fades. The logo shines and zooms out with a yellow shadow effect.
Trivia: The "explosion" flying streaks animation in this logo was also used on Five Sesame Street Stories, during the opening credits to the "Exciting Adventures of Super Grover" story after Super Grover flies by the screen and the title sequence ends. The streaks slightly move to the right instead of left. Ironically, this video does NOT end with this logo.
FX/SFX: The panning through space, the comet zooming toward the screen and exploding, the Golden Book Video logo animation, and the "shadow effect" zoom out.
Cheesy Factor: This animation is NOT suitable AT ALL to follow children's programming; it's very dark and ominous, the comet animation is very choppy and lumpy (even worse than early Hanna-Barbera or Jay Ward's animation), the "explosion" is really fake and amateurish, and the "shadow effect" is bad enough... ugh!!!
Music/Sounds: A strange humming sound as we begin, with a "whoosh" as the comet appears followed by a synthesized explosion sound, another strange humming sound, and a gradual synthesized fade-out during the "shadow effect".
Availability: Seen at the end of some Golden Book video releases from 1985 (that have the "version 1" fanfare on the beginning logo). This logo was spotted on VHS releases of Richard Scarry's Animal Nursery Tales and Herbert the Timid Dragon and Other Tales. It was also seen on reissues of said videos well into 1991.
Scare Factor: High to NIGHTMARE; with the very dark theme, horrific animation, combined with the strange humming, and the unnerving "shadow effect", this is the second scariest of all the children's logos (it was recently nudged from being the scariest children's logo by the Klasky-Csupo SSF), especially when viewed from the perspective of a small child!
_______________________________________________________________
GoldenVision
(1987-1991)
Nicknames: “The Big Golden V”, "V of Gold"
Logo: We see the end part of the Golden Book Video logo, where it shines all over. Suddenly, the logo zooms out, and we zoom out through a giant outlined “V” over a red rectangle, on its side. It rotates into place, and “Golden” zooms out, then “Vision” (with a “V” that’s bigger than the other letters), and you see the sides of the words as they zoom out, but they then turn into place. Once the two words settle onto the rectangle, the rectangle produces a yellow flash around the edges. The words shine twice, then the rectangle’s edges flash yellow again.
Closing Variant: In most cases, an end variant was used which just showed the fully-formed logo shining.
FX/SFX: The logo parts zooming out, the shining and flashing. Very good CGI animation for its time.
Music/Sounds: The end of the 1986 jingle with a 4-note synth fanfare throughout is heard at the beginning of the logo where we see the Golden Book Video logo, then it transforms into a whoosh when we go to the GoldenVision logo which crescends into a different synthesizer tune, which sounds like something on a light rock station (or a 16-bit SNES system or MIDI file). The end version is silent.
Availability: Rare, but can be found on some GBV tapes. Many of them have a print version of this logo, while some just use the regular Golden Book Video print logo.
Scare Factor: None; the animation is first-rate and the music isn't as cheesy.
_______________________________________________________________
Golden Step Ahead
Background: This was the educational division of Golden Books Home Video.
(1985-1988)
Logo: On a tan BG, we see a drawing of a girl in a red dress run toward two other children, one male and one female. The three then continue walking and meet up with two other children, one male and one female. Then, the camera zooms out, and one small boy runs toward the other children to catch up with them. They all transform into still images. The words "GOLDEN STEP AHEAD" appear above.
FX/SFX: The animation of the children.
Music/Sounds: A gentle guitar/woodwind tune.
Availability: This is pretty rare, from what I see. It can be seen on educational videos released by Golden Book Video.
Scare Factor: None; this logo is nice and calming and family-friendly.
_______________________________________________________________
Golden Books Home/Family Entertainment
(1997- )
Nicknames: "The (Golden) G", "G Reading a Book", "G with a Book"
Logo: On a white background we see a red book turned on its side and rotated at a 45 degree angle. We see the top of a lowercase G in Times font peeking over the top of the book), then jumps up from below, picks up the book, opens it, and hops up a few spaces to make way for "Golden Books" written in golden and in its familiar font (the G watches as the text is written). "HOME ENTERTAINMENT", or sometimes "FAMILY ENTERTAINMENT" appears below that as the G looks back into the book. The end result is what is the current Golden Books logo.
Variants:
FX/SFX: Nice 3D animation!
Music/Sounds: A playful xylophone tune is heard, accompanied by strings at the end.
Availability: Even though the logo is still in use, it isn't used as often as it was when it was introduced in the late 1990s.
Scare Factor: None; this logo is clean and family-friendly.
Logo captures and editions by Eric S., WileE2005 and AsdfTheRevival
Background: This was established by childrens' book publisher Golden Books as it's home video unit. Its earliest releases in the 1985-1986 timeframe were probably the most well-remembered, featuring adaptions of popular Golden Books using illustrations shot out of the books with very limited animation effects added. They also released many other children's entertainment videos, often under the "GoldenVision" name. In 1997, the newly formed Golden Books Family Entertainment began releasing videos through Sony Wonder. In 2001, the assets of Golden Books were sold to Classic Media, LLC (since acquired by Entertainment Rights plc., now Boomerang Media, L.L.C.) and Random House (which now continues Golden Books as a standalone imprint) in a bankruptcy court auction. Classic Media continued releasing the Golden Books Family Entertainment catalog through Sony Wonder until 2007, when it changed distributors to Genius Products.
Golden Book Video
1st Logo (Opening)
(1985-1996)
Nickname: "The Turning Golden Book"
Logo: The screen is divided into two parts horizontally: the top half is black and the bottom half is a lilac-sea green gradient. We see a book with its bottom side facing us, on the bottom half of the screen. As we zoom out it opens up and the pages turn, while a yellow pie-shaped sun flies up from the book, whose pages rise up and turn yellow. As this happens, the background becomes completely black .The pages and sun turn golden (or at least a cheesy recreation) as a golden rounded rectangle border zooms out and encloses the elements, with a space left where a ray of light wipes "GOLDEN" in a Serif Gothic-like font below it. The rounded rectangle "morphs" into a TV tube as "GOLDEN" zooms out to make way for "BOOK" which is wiped on similarly, and "VIDEO" which zooms out below that, with a shadow effect. The logo shines several times.
Closing Variants: In most cases, a silenced end animation played at the end of the video. At least one variant has been spotted where the logo fades in from a distance, slowly zooming up to the camera until it has nearly overtaken the entire screen. On several 1985 video releases, a different animation was sometimes used, which is described below.
FX/SFX: All the animation in this logo.
Music/Sounds: There were two fanfares used on this logo, both synthesized. They both were basically the same in format, but used two different sets of keys. "Version 1" was used up until mid-1986 and often featured the scary "space" end animation at the end of the video; "Version 2" was used from late-1986 to 1996.
Music/Sound Variant: An abridged version of the logo is used which plays a variation of the last few notes of the version 2 music, and the GoldenVision logo follows it.
Availability: Uncommon; still saved on copies with a print version of the logo which uses a different yet similar font for the words. Some early 1990s releases had the trademark Golden Books Spine which was used on all later releases. It can also be seen on some DiC video releases, including the 1989 video Little Golden Book Land: The Great Harbor Rescue. All videos with this logo are now unfortunately out of print, but can be found on eBay and at used video stores.
Scare Factor: Low; this logo has cool animation effects. But that does not compare to the closing logo...
2nd Logo (Closing)
(1985)
Nicknames: "(Outer) Space", "The Final Frontier... AAH!!!!", "Space from Hell/ofDoom", ''Space from 1985'', "A Golden Book in Space", "Golden Book Video Logo in Space", ''The Logo from Outer Space (spoof of The Cat from Outer Space)'', "The Neon Golden Book Video of Space"
Logo: We start out zooming in space, with an orange planet at the right of the screen and a blue planet at the left. Suddenly a comet appears and flies towards the center of the screen. When it reaches the center it "blows up"--i.e., there is a flash and the screen turns yellowish tint and a few yellow streaks emerge from the center and fly toward the screen, slightly moving left as they do so. A large Golden Book Video logo glowing blue zooms out as the yellowish tint fades. The logo shines and zooms out with a yellow shadow effect.
Trivia: The "explosion" flying streaks animation in this logo was also used on Five Sesame Street Stories, during the opening credits to the "Exciting Adventures of Super Grover" story after Super Grover flies by the screen and the title sequence ends. The streaks slightly move to the right instead of left. Ironically, this video does NOT end with this logo.
FX/SFX: The panning through space, the comet zooming toward the screen and exploding, the Golden Book Video logo animation, and the "shadow effect" zoom out.
Cheesy Factor: This animation is NOT suitable AT ALL to follow children's programming; it's very dark and ominous, the comet animation is very choppy and lumpy (even worse than early Hanna-Barbera or Jay Ward's animation), the "explosion" is really fake and amateurish, and the "shadow effect" is bad enough... ugh!!!
Music/Sounds: A strange humming sound as we begin, with a "whoosh" as the comet appears followed by a synthesized explosion sound, another strange humming sound, and a gradual synthesized fade-out during the "shadow effect".
Availability: Seen at the end of some Golden Book video releases from 1985 (that have the "version 1" fanfare on the beginning logo). This logo was spotted on VHS releases of Richard Scarry's Animal Nursery Tales and Herbert the Timid Dragon and Other Tales. It was also seen on reissues of said videos well into 1991.
Scare Factor: High to NIGHTMARE; with the very dark theme, horrific animation, combined with the strange humming, and the unnerving "shadow effect", this is the second scariest of all the children's logos (it was recently nudged from being the scariest children's logo by the Klasky-Csupo SSF), especially when viewed from the perspective of a small child!
_______________________________________________________________
GoldenVision
(1987-1991)
Nicknames: “The Big Golden V”, "V of Gold"
Logo: We see the end part of the Golden Book Video logo, where it shines all over. Suddenly, the logo zooms out, and we zoom out through a giant outlined “V” over a red rectangle, on its side. It rotates into place, and “Golden” zooms out, then “Vision” (with a “V” that’s bigger than the other letters), and you see the sides of the words as they zoom out, but they then turn into place. Once the two words settle onto the rectangle, the rectangle produces a yellow flash around the edges. The words shine twice, then the rectangle’s edges flash yellow again.
Closing Variant: In most cases, an end variant was used which just showed the fully-formed logo shining.
FX/SFX: The logo parts zooming out, the shining and flashing. Very good CGI animation for its time.
Music/Sounds: The end of the 1986 jingle with a 4-note synth fanfare throughout is heard at the beginning of the logo where we see the Golden Book Video logo, then it transforms into a whoosh when we go to the GoldenVision logo which crescends into a different synthesizer tune, which sounds like something on a light rock station (or a 16-bit SNES system or MIDI file). The end version is silent.
Availability: Rare, but can be found on some GBV tapes. Many of them have a print version of this logo, while some just use the regular Golden Book Video print logo.
Scare Factor: None; the animation is first-rate and the music isn't as cheesy.
_______________________________________________________________
Golden Step Ahead
Background: This was the educational division of Golden Books Home Video.
(1985-1988)
Logo: On a tan BG, we see a drawing of a girl in a red dress run toward two other children, one male and one female. The three then continue walking and meet up with two other children, one male and one female. Then, the camera zooms out, and one small boy runs toward the other children to catch up with them. They all transform into still images. The words "GOLDEN STEP AHEAD" appear above.
FX/SFX: The animation of the children.
Music/Sounds: A gentle guitar/woodwind tune.
Availability: This is pretty rare, from what I see. It can be seen on educational videos released by Golden Book Video.
Scare Factor: None; this logo is nice and calming and family-friendly.
_______________________________________________________________
Golden Books Home/Family Entertainment
(1997- )
Nicknames: "The (Golden) G", "G Reading a Book", "G with a Book"
Logo: On a white background we see a red book turned on its side and rotated at a 45 degree angle. We see the top of a lowercase G in Times font peeking over the top of the book), then jumps up from below, picks up the book, opens it, and hops up a few spaces to make way for "Golden Books" written in golden and in its familiar font (the G watches as the text is written). "HOME ENTERTAINMENT", or sometimes "FAMILY ENTERTAINMENT" appears below that as the G looks back into the book. The end result is what is the current Golden Books logo.
Variants:
- On the DVD release of Frosty the Snowman, the logo disappears to make room for "Presents" in its italic Times font.
- A still version of the logo exists. On The Charlie Horse Music Pizza, it also had "IN ASSOCIATION WITH" above it in a yellow Funhouse font.
- On some Christmas specials, the G is still once again, but wearing a Santa hat.
- An in-credit version appeared on the 1997-99 version of Lassie, which aired on Animal Planet in the U.S. and Family Channel in Canada.
FX/SFX: Nice 3D animation!
Music/Sounds: A playful xylophone tune is heard, accompanied by strings at the end.
Availability: Even though the logo is still in use, it isn't used as often as it was when it was introduced in the late 1990s.
Scare Factor: None; this logo is clean and family-friendly.
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| Started By | Thread Subject | Replies | Last Post | ||
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| TomTornados3 | Logo Number 2 | 0 | May 1 2009, 6:14 PM EDT by TomTornados3 | ||
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Thread started: May 1 2009, 6:14 PM EDT
Watch
Should I watch that logo?
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| glickmam | Golden Books closing logo | 3 | Apr 22 2009, 4:10 PM EDT by TomTornados3 | ||
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Thread started: May 3 2008, 11:34 PM EDT
Watch
"Closing Logo
(1985) Nicknames: "(Outer) Space", "The Final Frontier... AAH!!!!", "Space from/of Hell/Doom", ''Space '85'' Logo: We start out zooming in space, with an orange planet at the right of the screen and a blue planet at the left. Suddenly a comet appears and flies towards the center of the screen. When it reaches the center it "blows up"--i.e., there is a flash and the screen turns yellowish tint and a few yellow streaks emerge from the center and fly toward the screen, slightly moving left as they do so. A large Golden Book Video logo glowing blue zooms out as the yellowish tint fades. The logo shines and zooms out with a shadow effect. FX/Cheesy Factor: This animation is NOT suitable AT ALL to follow children's programming; it's very dark, the comet animation is very choppy (even worse than Hanna-Barbera's animation), the "explosion" is really fake and amateurish, and the "shadow effect" is bad enough... ugh!!! Music/Sounds: A strange humming sound as we begin, with a "whoosh" as the comet appears followed by a synthesized explosion sound, another strange humming sound, and a gradual synthesized fade-out. Availability: Seen at the end of Golden video releases from 1985 (that have the "version 1" fanfare on the beginning logo). This logo was spotted on VHS releases of "Richard Scarry's Animal Nursery Tales" and "Herbert the Timid Dragon and Other Tales." Scare Factor: High to NIGHTMARE; what with the dark theme and bad, scary animation, combined with the scary music, this may be one of the scariest of children's logos, especially when viewed from the perspective of a child!" Which is probably why it was retired so quickly. |
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| TomTornados3 | Golden Book Closing Logo 1985 | 0 | Apr 14 2009, 7:19 PM EDT by TomTornados3 | ||
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Thread started: Apr 14 2009, 7:19 PM EDT
Watch
Why did you put this nickname for the Space logo; The Final Frontier...AAH!!!! LOL!
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